Boat clinics aid Haiyan victims

A team of the NGO would include a doctor, two nurses, a psychologist, a translator and two Filipino caregivers.

Philippines

Feb 10 2014, 5:24 PM

A child being treated by a medical volunteer as her father watches.

Doctors Sans Borders has organized mobile clinics on boats to deliver medical and humanitarian aid in five Typhoon Haiyan affected islands in the south of Guiuan.

A team of the NGO would include a doctor, two nurses, a psychologist, a translator and two Filipino caregivers. They treat up to 200 patients per day and transfer complicated cases to the MSF hospital in Guiuan.

The teams have been trying to reach the most-isolated areas. Inhabitants in remote areas have not been able to communicate with anyone as their boats were destroyed.

There is a lot of destruction, debris, glass and cans, said one of the doctors who visited 250 patients one day. If it rains, roads become muddy and vans carrying the team can no longer continue their journey. The team would then have to walk along the roads carrying medicines and equipment. The climate is hot and humid and there is a high risk of skin infection and tetanus.

There are patients who suffer from stress and psychosomatic disorders, physical pain, depression, numbness of limbs and insomnia. One of the smaller islands visited by the operators is called Victory. It takes 15 minutes to cross it. 60 people live there and all houses have been destroyed. Many are still missing, more than half of them are children.

In the two months the NGO has carried out 66,795 visits, admitted 1552 patients in hospitals, carried out 365 surgeries and assisted 395 deliveries.